Networks before Empires
PhD thesis — Institute of Archaeology, 2016. Full text: https://archive.org/details/massa-thesis-combined
Evidence
Networks before Empires
Trade networks don't wait for empires — complex exchange systems with middlemen and route control predate state power by millennia, a pattern that repeats in every shadow economy since.
Long-distance exchange networks in Early Bronze Age Anatolia (c. 3200–1950 BC) ran on organized systems — specialized production, exchange intermediaries, route control, and rising elites leveraging the region's metal wealth — centuries before any empire managed them.
Why it matters
Trade networks don't wait for empires — complex exchange systems with middlemen and route control predate state power by millennia, a pattern that repeats in every shadow economy since.
Use when: Infrastructure precedes institutions — exchange networks with intermediaries, route control, and standards emerged before the states that later claimed to run them.